Jazz Jackrabbit 2 Online

Original review was too heavy-handed. Pack re-rated at 6.

Please don’t ever bring the subject up again, for everyone’s sake.

I thought it was awesome level. now that there’s a lite version its imo even better. and music is not by kevin riepl, so thats great for a pj level! gj :D

While this level isn’t very noob-friendly, it surely gives you a lot of tactical advantage over others once you learn the level properly yourself. What is it about?

It’s about knowing how to maneuver with your character here. The level is fairly big technically, (depends on how you consider medium to be) but it’s also pretty solid, so it might not feel that big while you’re playing. In that sense, learning how to move shouldn’t take very long, but of course there is much variety in the flow, so you need some memorizing. Also considering that there are only 4 springs in a level of this size, it means that you need better control over your character to be able to move well. Some modern levels tend to have springs or float-ups put everywhere around the level, (even unnecessary places) so you don’t need to jump at all, basically, which is a bad thing. Here, however you need to use jump to reach certain spots or areas from a certain point.

The level uses a modified tileset with a Grey’ish palette which creates a deadly atmosphere. The same thing has been done before, but it’s nice to have another one in a new environment every once in a while(for example see The Death Facility by P4ul/Booshi.) But also the level has very surrealistic graphics in an innovative way that makes it look less dull.

There are a few dead ends at the top part of the level. You could get trapped there in case you lack bouncer ammo. At the same time, you may camp against your opponents pretty well in them, but since the gamemode is battle, they aren’t such a big matter.

The level contains 5 power ups and 3 carrots if I counted right, which is fair enough for this level. One of the power ups(the most powerful one – Seeker, of course) is pretty hard to reach and notice in general. It is a nice concept, but I think the power up could be more visible or there should be at least a hint of it’s existence there. For the rest things are placed and executed well.

This is a fun, and high quality level by PurpleJazz, that is definitely worth a download and a lot of games. This level should work well with 1vs1 games, but the more, the merrier. Also props for the hidden messages.

EDIT: Thanks for the update. The power up should be fine now.

SJ

Since people dislike this level I’ll help you guys out with my rating.
Decided to give a fully full review which is fuller than full!

Eyecandy:
Considering that this eyecandy has a few ‘bugs’ doesn’t mean it isn’t good. It’s actually well done. The speeds are good and gives a really nice hell effect. The grey atmosphere has a nice colored balanced glow of its map. But the red mists are kind of weird with its speeds.

Gameplay:
Since there are newbies for who has to be the flow perfect. Let me tell you this, not even a single level is perfect. It doesn’t excist, so be happy with what you’ve got. By learning the map you can improve you skills and be like the real pwners. But it seems you don’t seem to understand that. Anyway, now about the levels gameplay.
Since I liked that RF trick there should be another way to get there, with a tube or frozen spring thing, but that is up to you. But you deleted the warp (which I liked..), but that doesn’t effect my rating though. The flow is fifty/fifty.., it has some lacks and i see some nice ends where you can stand. (I mean in the walls) Try to fix these, you can find them by mask on. To get the seeker pu is hard for newbies. It’s just like in ‘Evil Mike’s Evil Fortress’, which has an incredible hard way to get the seeker pu if you play with a lower resolution. Because you don’t see it, I only heard it from a pwner that there was a seeker pu.
Since it’s an hard tileset to use with such crappy maskbugs, so it’s well done and makes the level with the flow a bit better.

Layout:
Ai…, my eyes hurt.. It looks nice, but better you don’t play with low detail. And you hardly see your own rabbit. But that isn’t a big deal, because you always say your name (But not the ground). But I guess the layout is okay but a bit chaotic as well.
But what the hell..? I hardly see carrots because they have to same colour as everything else?!

Placements:
Since this doesn’t count that much, I have to make it count more. Just in this little case.

Seeker PU:
The worst spot in the whole level. It’s too pro biased and has no more ways to get it. Even for the pro’s it sucks.

Bouncer PU:
Has a good spot, but the diagonal line of it doesn’t fit it. Just in the middle of it..

RF PU:
One of the best I guess. On a small island and with some ways to get there.

Blaster PU:
Small doorway, campy, and a C near it. Perfect DD spot.

Toaster PU:
A bit Spaz biased but good enough to control it.

Carrots:
1st (31,7): This one is Spaz biased. Uncampy.

2nd (124,17): This one is more for the DD people which like to camp at the blaster PU. It’s hard to take from the vine, so the best way to get it is from the left.

3rd (64,45): Uncamp, and in a free area. Takes some advantage to get it from the right.

Start posts:
This is something I’ve hardly seen. The startposts are at a small island near a wall. I liked that.

Ammo Placements:
Rather good, sometimes not. Too much tiles between them for example.

Music:
Nice bumbin’ straight in da ears.
(Just good, nothing to say about.)
But I wouldn’t listen this all day.

=================================================================

Since my review is more based on what people think about the gameplay and less about the level I’m not a disliker of this map.

So, the few maskbugs and such could be solved. Learn the freakin’ map instead of complaining.

~Adeøn aka Loon

@ PJ: Honestly, I may not know the exact definition of “skills”, but I don’t think it’s like you can call discovering the existence of the PU (no chance for it if you play the level in battle mode, low chances in offline/not serious games – you’ll basically only find it via JCS, SP cheats or if someone tells you), training the level offline a lot to find the proper spot, memorizing it by heart, and being lucky enough to hit the shoot button in the right gametick (there’s one or two I think when you can successfully get the PU) during the game as being “skilled enough to get it”.

Full review, after playing it.

Music:
Well, that was allright. Fits the level
10/10

Eyecandy: Well done, but a few bugs in the background… It is very monotonous but that’s a tileset issue probably so no rate-down… it isn’t really PurpleJazz’ fault considering he tried to use every eyecandy piece as orginal as he could.
9,5/10
———
Gameplay:
Flow: Ah, by FAR not the best I’ve seen this year. Many levels surpassed this one. I got stuck into one-ways, bumped into walls, needed to make weird running jumps because Lori can’t double-jump etc. Jazz could uppercut but that takes more time like Lori’s running jumps (so Jazz should have to do those jumps too). Also, some places are very hard to reach with Jazz/Lori, which makes this level noob-proof (noobs use Spaz less often in comparison, while being unable to negate Spaz advantages with tricky jumping due to relatively low skills).

Only Spaz can double jump; Jazz can’t either. So only Spaz can play here properly. Lori’s weird jumps are faster than Jazz uppercut, while they lack the predictable course (possibility to turn away and slam bouncy in you face!). It isn’t about Lori’s disadvantage – it is about the Spaz advantage over both Jazz and Lori. It is true a noob who at least knows how to uppercut, will do better with Jazz than with Lori here.

Edit: With noob-proof I also say that are less competent players in general have there issues, and not only the walk-and-shoot TheServer/ZA noobs.

Edit2: I could no longer get stuck into one-ways.

5,5 -> 6,5/10.

Pickup placement
Everything was allright… the Seek PU has, despite the freakin’ warp is removed, still its issues. You can shoot it with unpowered bouncy, but it takes a very precise hit – which takes also a lot of time if you don’t have experience or when you can’t aim too good. If this map is intended for a lot of players, more fastfires would be nice as well…

EDIT: Warp to Seek PU removed. Still, Seek PU is hard to reach for those who don’t have a VERY good aim. In SP it is possible if you don’t have a good aim, but try hitting it with less than five bouncy spent, in three seconds.

7,5/10 -> 8,5/10

Replay value:
Zero. I’ve played it… and well… I really don’t want to play it again. Getting stuck feels really, really frustrating… considering I did it twice in only half a minute… well. Goddamnit.
The grim atmosphere, while looking allright, doesn’t really help either. It is all grey and dusty which is something I don’t really like to see too often in a server…

Edit: OK, the worst things are removed so this level are removed. But in fact, this is my personal like/dislike box; would I like to replay this?
3,5/10 -> 4,5/10

36/50 -> 39/50

Penalties:
None

7.2/10 -> 7.8/10

DR: This level isn’t made for noobs. So if you consider yourself a noob, don’t download this.

Edits: Main issues were fixed, so the rating is now upped quite a bit. Bumping into walls is still an annoyance though.

It is possible to get the Seeker PU with a cleverly placed shot with non powered up Bouncers. The warp is just a “bonus” way of getting there – you can get there either if you are good with RFs or by getting shot up by another player.

EDIT @ TW: When are you getting stuck exactly? This level has been tested throughly, and I haven’t noticed anywhere players could potentially get stuck. Seeing as I made this level in 1.23, isn’t the argument that this level isn’t Lori friendly technically invalid? You claim you keep hitting walls – you will if you don’t actually control yourself instead of mindlessly running forward. Why do I need to make this level “noob friendly”? I’m pretty sure they’re all happily playing Battle 1 No Fire Hotels and generic top3 tests. I can appriciate why you may not enjoy the atmosphere. The downbeat, monochrome, dreary theme was completely intentional, creating a more morbid arena with a grittier feel than the usual colourful levels found in JJ2. I don’t have a problem with you disliking this level, but I really think you should at least consider justifying your arguments a bit better.

Inferno is not necessarily the first tileset I think of when I imagine a golden opportunity to make brilliant levels. Despite the fact that it was my second favorite planet in Jazz 2 (TSF’s Turtleville is still the best), let’s face it: The tileset is buggy, the eyecandy is just plain hard to use, and the tileset is incredibly monotonous.

Allow me to put your mind at ease when I say that while it may be a hair on the monotonous side, Purple Jazz’s Pit of Necrosis is certainly none of those other things.

For one thing, the level looks just plain awesome. PJ took a tileset that was originally supposed to be a frozen wasteland and turned it into a lonely, windy boneyard completely appropriate for a battle level. No piece of eyecandy is used the same way twice, as he made good use of the various images of skeletons and bones and musty old skulls in several different layers, putting one in the foreground here, while placing it in the background there. There were even a few random bones lying on the ground, which I thought was a cute (depending on how you look at it) little touch. I especially liked the “bone pile” in the lower left corner of the map, built up to look like a bunch of giant animals just fell on top of each other and died.

But he didn’t stop there, utilizing a trick that I myself am a big fan of (if it’s used right), which is creating side paths as eyecandy in the level. In random areas of Necrosis, PJ put a few little alternate roads under certain areas and behind certain walls, preventing you from accessing them, but ever increasing the visual size of the level.

Necrosis was a nice and wide open level, but not in the sense that it was empty and boring. Oh, no no no. There were a number of paths stuck on top of paths on top of paths, leaving a truckload of escape routes by which to avoid your attackers, which means it’s easy to get lost here. And in my book, if a level can do that successfully, it’s a good thing.

I wasn’t too crazy about some of the little scattered text strings PJ used, but let’s not drag personal views into a perfectly good review.

There was also very fine bug management control, and for a tileset like this, that’s terrific.

Remember all the anvil-shaped platforms? Well, Purple Jazz found a unique (although not original) way to deal with it, making the very edges one-way. In fact, I had a hard time finding anything wrong buggage-wise here.

Layer 8 and the surrounding background layers were a bit bland, in my opinion, but not intolerably so. I didn’t mind too much after a while.

I didn’t download the music track for this level (since the last time I tried something like that, I got a vicious spyware virus that knocked out my internet for nine months), but if PJ took as much care with that as with this level, I’m sure it works just fine.

I was disappointed, though, that some of the platforms were just out of the reach of normal jumping (and no springs were around), which meant that you either had to get a running start (if you even had enough room to do that), or else just uppercut/double jump, which can cost precious time in a battle.

In addition, I tried and I tried, but I could just not get into the Seeker warp at the top of the level. Unless there’s some newfangled gameplay trick out there that I don’t know about (And that’s entirely possible), it’s not accessible at all, except by using singleplayer cheats.

My biggest major problem with this level is, as I originally pointed out, it IS a bit on the monotonous side. I mean, you can only go so far with a black+gray+white color scheme (There was a little orange in the background, however). I would’ve maybe put a light dusting of dark red into the level (or the set, if you modified it yourself), and that would’ve made it so much better. But this is a small nuance, and it doesn’t irk me as badly as others might have.

In short, I think that Pit of Necrosis is a pretty darn good level, if I do say so myself. Perfect for a brawl between a large number of players, or a really long two-player contest. Download today, compliments of the reviewer.

Another comment….(since I can’t log on to my old user)
I Think someone forgot to re-upload “Damn+Hot” when it’s re-uploaded….

it was nice pj. but definitely u had better lvls like cots ;p… well i guess its better to use some small battle level like this as arenas in duel-tournaments for jdc :P. last seasons arena was stupid XD

One of the much better levels that I’ve seen in a very very long time. Kudos to you.

Sorry PJ, I just don’t think this is quite worth the 8 rating since I don’t see the ‘wow’ factor here. What is nice about the level is the tileset choice and use, while perhaps not perfect has a very nice overall look. The music in combination with the tileset use inspired me. Gameplaywise, despite having 3c + a shield remains solid.

Updated review:

I rated Triton Armory three years ago with a 72. After playing it several times, mainly in JDC ODT Events, I decided to edit my review.

What can I say about the eyecandy? Iron Crown really is a limited tileset, but PurpleJazz made the level look actually quite good.

I like the PU’s in this level – it has Bouncy, RF (each very useful in a level as open as this) and Toaster. It doesn’t have a Seek PU, which is a good choice. I also really the carrot placement. There are three +1 carrots and they really make this level fast paced – which (for me personally, at least) makes duel-sized levels way more fun. Another thing I like is the shield, because it really adds to the gameplay.

This level might not be revolutionary in any way, but because of its size and pace it still is a good level to play Battle duels in. So I definitely give a download recommendation, but I suppose most of you already know this level.

I like the way you used the tileset =]

A very nice level, but also extremely small. Play promises to be quite chaotic due to having three powerups and a shield all easily accessible. The eyecandy is extremely well done given the tileset used.

Hmm level is nice. Yes,it’s small but nice. I think the background can only be seen in 16-bit,good I noticed it.

So, lets start rewieving again.

EYECANDY
8/10
Very good and cool.
I like the background a lot.

GAMEPLAY:
7/10
Not bad at all.

PICKUPS:
Very good.
There are carrots and 3 PU’s I think.

DR: yes. Its very good level and I believe you spend lot of time by creating this. Good work.

Lol PJ you spammed the here ec a bit =[

lol

City of the Snooze… I’ve seen this a few times. Now, also on behalf of the Review Exchange, I’ll review it.

Gameplay: Good
City of the Sn00zE is the kind of level that you could see in all kinds of places; JDC, tournaments, etc. I can see how lots of people could like this level.

The level is non-symmetrical. In some cases, this could disrupt the balance of the teams. For example, the shortest route from blue to red base could take you a little more than four seconds and requires you to jump once (from base, jump up, run into the warp and land on the base). The Red Base has a warp closeby the base as well, but it’s right below it. Blue only has to hold right and celebrate (sounds like a Sonic game), while right has to make a timed, perfect drop into the warp if they don’t wanna lose speed on the way to base. The Full NRG carrot is also more accessible when you approach from the left, rather than the right (you can jump into it without losing speed from the left, but right-siders will have to slow down).

The carrots in this level are all accessible with ease. The two +1 Carrots in the level, near the bases, are behind a barrel, but when coming from above, they’re hard to miss. The Full NRG carrot can be found in the middle of the level. As said before, it’s kind of under a ledge, so coming from the right, it’s easy to miss. Then again, if you know that it is there, a simple press on the down button can get you +2HP. ;)

The level is divided in two “routes”. One of those is the Underground. Down here, there are warps up and the famed Seeker PU. Also, running down here could give you an advantage, as it is not littered with obstacles. The upper route (or actually just everything except the underground) consists of roof-platforms and little tunnels, routes and balconies, all waiting to be walked. For a non-symmetrical level, the platforms are divided in a really nice way and there are only few points that disrupt the flow (i.e. by bumping into the edge of a platform, forcing you to a sudden halt).

The level is cramped with ammunition for all kinds of guns. Separate from the Bouncer PU above each base, the upper floors also provide a Toaster PU and the Seeker PU, as mentioned before, rests in the underground. The ammo is divided nicely, and there is not too much either.

This level would be perfect for a 3vs3 or more. Maybe a 2vs2 would work, but the amount of ammo and carrots make for a larger, team based game.

Atmosphere: very scary how make you it Very nice
City of the Sn00zE uses the infamous “Colonius” tileset. The set itself has a few tiles missing and a lot of masking errors. Luckily for us (and PJ), Paul fixed those errors and created an improved version of Colon2.

Given the fact that this set is a pain to work with, we can safely assume that PJ is an experienced level builder. I could not find any tile bugs at all. Not only that, but PJ manages to use almost every tile of the tileset in order to create some very creative eyecandy. For example, the tileset contains an ‘arc’ at the top of it. Most people just use that because it looks nice, but City of the Sn00zE shows us that those can be used more creatively that one could imagine.

The eyecandy in general is nice. There are VERY few ‘bland’ areas, most of the level is carefully looked after.

The music is all right. It’s a bit too spacey for this level, if you ask me, but then again, it IS kind of serene and does fit an alley-ish setting. Combined with the yellow-into-purple fade on the background, this actually gives a calming feel in the end.

Overall: Good
As PJ stated himself, this is probably his best work as of yet. There is no reason why this level shouldn’t be in your folder.

Download Recommendation: Yes
Yes. Simply yes.

Score: 8.5
This level is worth an above average score. Treat her with respect.